books

screenplays

Exile (full-length drama) Finalist, WriteMovies; Quarterfinalist, Fade-In.
LJ lives in a U . S. of A., with a new Three Strikes Law: first crime, rehab; second crime, prison; third crime, you’re simply kicked out – permanently exiled to a designated remote area, to fend for yourself without the benefits of society. At least he used to live in that new U. S. of A. He’s just committed his third crime.

What Happened to Tom (full-length drama) Semifinalist, Moondance.
This guy wakes up to find his body’s been hijacked and turned into a human kidney dialysis machine – for nine months.

Aiding the Enemy (short drama 15min)
When Private Ann Jones faces execution for “aiding the enemy,” she points to American weapons manufacturers who sell to whatever country is in the market.

Bang Bang (short drama 30min) Finalist, Gimme Credit; Quarter-finalist, American Gem.
When a young boy playing “Cops and Robbers” jumps out at a man passing by, the man shoots him, thinking the boy’s toy gun is real. Who’s to blame?

Foreseeable (short drama 30min)
An awful choice in a time of war. Whose choice was it really?

Two Women, Road Trip, Extraterrestrial (full-length comedy)
When an independent activist and her frustrated office temp buddy embark on a quest for a chocolate bar, they pick up a hitchhiking extraterrestrial who’s stopped on Earth to ask for directions. They help her get the information she needs – and discover it’s easier to get a gun in this country than a little scientific knowledge – and decide to go with her. To become chocolate bartenders.

Boston Legal: Bang Bang (spec script) Semifinalist,Scriptapalooza.

Balls (short mockumentary 10min)
A hilarious mockumentary about men playing with balls

Here Comes the Bride (5min)
You’ll never get married again.

Let Me Entertain You (5min)
Is it a slippery slope from screen idol to snuff film?

Take Care of Your Mom While I’m Gone (3-5min)
She’s an adult. She needs a ten-year-old to take care of her?

My Life in Danger (short drama 3-5min)
When does attempted rape warrant self-defence of deadly force?

Size Matters (3-5min)
What if women were the taller sex? Ask any short man.

I am Eve (10min)
An examination exposing the irrationality and injustice of Eve’s role in Judaeo-Christianity.

If Then (5-10 min)
The end of our lives as we know them. Can’t say we didn’t see it coming.

Crime of Passion (short drama 3-5min)
The perfect solution to crimes of “passion”

Minding Our Own Business (20 min)
A collection of skits (including “The Price is Not Quite Right,” “Singin’ in the (Acid) Rain,” “Adverse Reactions,” “The Band-Aid Solution,” and “See Jane. See Dick.”) with a not-so-subtle environmental message

The Missing Link (short comedy 3-5min)
Two women and an alien enter a bar…

Marriage, by its very (traditional) definition, is a sexist affair: it involves one of each sex, one male and one female.And I suppose this is because, traditionally, the purpose of marriage was family: to start a family, to have and raise children.

This view is fraught with questionable assumptions, glaring inconsistencies, and blatant errors.I’ll give one of each: the connection between having and raising children is not at all necessary, hence the ‘one male and one female’ is not at all necessary; if the purpose of marriage is to have a family, why do couples who do not intend to have children nevertheless marry – and why don’t couples routinely divorce once the children are raised; the marriage contract goes well beyond family concerns – indeed, it barely approaches family concerns – one pledges to love and honour one’s spouse, not one’s children.

Notwithstanding the very mistaken connection between marriage and family, I’d like to suggest another reason for the sexism in marriage.Assuming that marriage entails love, and love entails ‘looking after’, sexism makes things ‘easier’.

Consider this: needing to be looked after suggests one is a child or perhaps an invalid; if both people are looking after each other, well, how can a child look after – another child?(Makes marriages rather like the blind leading the blind.)(Not an entirely unapt analogy.)There has to be a difference, some sort of distinction.The distinction is, surprise, sex: the husband is the father, he looks after his wife with respect to the male domain – he fixes things for her, he tells her stuff, he makes the money; the wife is the mother, she looks after her husband with respect to the female domain – she feeds him, clothes him, reminds him.

This sexist division also avoids a second problem: without it, they’d each feel, as indeed they are, treated like a child.How does a wife feel when her husband lets her know what colours go together?How does a husband feel when his wife changes the spark plugs?Inadequate, insulted, put down.No doubt responding with an eight-year-old’s “I know that!” or “I can do it!”The sexist division of labour justifies ignorance and incompetence within a certain domain; it therefore allows people to remain children, without embarrassment, within a certain domain.And this enables the other to take care of them, in that domain, without offense.(I suspect, therefore, the more whole a person is, the less feminine or masculine, the worse they fare in a marriage.And if women tend to be more whole than men, well, that would explain why men need marriage more than women do – I’m thinking of happiness/suicide studies – aren’t unmarried men the worst off?)

Now of course I wonder how same sex couples look after each other.Do they all negotiate some sort of butch/femme split?Or – and wouldn’t this be simpler, wouldn’t it be healthier – does their concept of love between adults not entail, not require, such nurture?

One Response to “Marriage: A Sexist Affair”

I certainly saw that in my parent’s generation and I still have a copy of an Utne Reader from the late 90’s with an article about the sexual politics of housework.

Maybe my marriage is atypical but I don’t think we’d be put out if one did something that was usually the others domain. Astonished, yes. I doubt the woman I married would never have anything to do with rebuilding the vacuum pump in her car, but if she decided she wanted to, then I’d do my best to show her how to do it.

Nevertheless, our division of labor does split pretty much along traditional lines. We laugh at being un-traditionally traditional.